State/status

Kudzanai Chiurai's State of the Nation exhibition unpacks the notion of "state" using art, photography, performance and videos.

Award-winning Zimbabwean-born artist Kudzanai Chiurai presents State of the Nation at Goodman Gallery Projects in Johannesburg.

The exhibition, which runs until 3 December 2011, explores the notion of “state” as both a utopian and as an action. “State” as a state of mind, but also as a status.

Featuring photographic prints, drawings, large oil paintings, videos, sound installations and performance, State of the Nation suggest a new way of looking at the African socio-politics of today.

Juxtaposing the past and the present of a continent gripped by violent civil wars, Chiurai considers the African condition. While the title of the exhibition intends to refer to a constructed African state that has been ravaged by conflict, the work follows an individual’s narration of events that lead up the inaugural speech by the first supposedly democratically elected prime minister.

State of the Nation references child soldiers, African liberation movements and civil wars, looking at the tumultuous political, social and ideological states in times of transition.